I’m going to break my race report up into different posts because there’s just so much to say, but I know I will not nearly do it justice and I’ll be kicking myself for not writing this all down sooner in order to remember both of it. There was no way any writing was going to happen yesterday because every time I stood up I felt like I was going to vomit. I was severely dehydrated and malnourished…but I think I have that all under control and today I’m just feeling a bit sore and I’m certain my left big toenail is going to fall off (hopefully I’m wrong about that!).
But the most important outcome of the story is…I DID IT! I am an IRON(wo)MAN! It took me 15 hours, 43 minutes, and 43 seconds, but I finished. And with some time to spare :).
I’ve been reading a lot of the forums that I’ve been lurking on for the past 7 months and the things I’ve been reading are crazy. I just thank God that I was able to finish in the circumstances I was in. It was blazing hot outside and tons of people were laying on the side of the road during the bike, whether it was from bike malfunction or body malfunction – I will never know. But there were lots of ambulances out on the course picking people up, so that can’t be good. On one forum someone wrote that there was a 15.8% dropout rate for the race – 300 people didn’t show up and 400 people dropped out at some point during the race (either they didn’t make the cutoff times or they had to stop). That’s a really high percentage! I dealt with my own personal demons on that course, but I knew I was going to make it.
But anyways, let me take you back quite a few days to last Friday when Eric and I arrived in Louisville for athlete check-in. I posted a few things here and there over the weekend, but let me get into some more detail.
Friday morning we arrived and we immediately went to the Galt House for check-in, weigh-in and packet pick up. From the weigh-in I know I lost 8 lbs from Friday to Monday morning. That’s what an Ironman will do to you! No worries though – I’ve gained all that weight back no problem :). Anyways, Eric and I stood in a bunch of lines, I got my Ironman bracelet for race day, and I purchased a few goodies for myself, such as my new Ironman sweatshirt which I can now wear and not jinx myself (it’s not good to wear any race shirts before you’ve actually completed the race – bad luck for sure!).
I was eyeing the bike jerseys, but they just weren’t calling out to me. I was searching for a good tshirt, but I came up with nothing, so there will be some searching happening on the Ironman site now that the race is done. I am less than impressed with the finishers shirts.
Anyways, after our shopping trip through the Ironman store, we headed down to 4th Street Live so I could visualize my finish and stop by the Pub for a drink. Yes, I was going without any beer for two weeks, but at that point I just wanted one. So I had one.
And it was gooood!
After a drink and lunch, we headed down to the river to check out the swim finish and the transition area. Everything was nice and empty on Friday -
(Stairs leading out of the water)
(Rows and rows of bike racks with transition tents in the background)
(Bike exit)
Then we headed across the river to check in to our hotel. We (my parents, Eric and I) all stayed at Townplace Suites in Jeffersonville. The hotel was very nice (compared to some other places I’ve stayed) and it had a full size fridge, which was nice to keep my water bottles and such in. Plus, we were just a 5 minute drive to all the Ironman festivities, which was very nice.
After relaxing for a bit we headed back over the river to the Athlete dinner. Not my cup of tea. It was a madhouse and we had to sit at a table with about 8 other people who all wanted to talk about the race, which I did not want to do.
(More crazy lines – this time for food!)
(So many people all trying to eat at the same time)
Everyone was very nice at our table, but I wanted to get out of there to avoid race talk. I made Eric stuff his face and we high-tailed it back to the hotel to get to bed early and get a good night’s sleep. We took a short pit-stop at a nearby restaurant to grab a drink and look out over the river towards the swim finish/transition area.
I ended up sleeping about 10 hours, so I would call that a success!
Saturday morning we woke up early to head to the practice swim, which was at the swim finish.
We got there right when it was starting, so it wasn’t too busy yet. I still had to wait in a pretty long line to get in the water. I ended up swimming about 15 minutes before it was time to get back to the car to avoid getting a ticket.
After the practice swim I got all clean and we awaited the arrival of my parents. Once they got there we grabbed some lunch and then drove the bike course so I could see what I was up against. I knew it was going to a tough bike course with the hills, but when you are in the car it makes it seem much less scary. I paid for that assumption the next day.
After driving the course we headed back to the hotel to grab my bike and gear to drop it off in the transition area. We ended up doing this towards the end of the drop-off time so we wouldn’t have to wait in a long line. Because of this, the transition area was already full of bikes when we arrived!
(Bikes, bikes, everywhere! About 3,000 bikes to be exact.)
As soon as I walked in to the transition area with my stuff I was greeted by a very friendly volunteer who took all of my race bags and directed me towards my spot on the bike racks. We chatted a little about my sweet bike (the volunteer said she had bike envy…I felt pretty special when she said that as I am usually the one with bike envy), and then she directed me around the transition area to point out where my bags would be as well as the changing tent. The volunteer noted that I was probably one of the most calm people she had come into contact with that day, and I was very calm…I don’t tend to get too worked up about races, and I knew my calmness would help me on race day so I just ran with it. After getting my tour of transition area, I headed back to the hotel with Eric and my parents for my traditional pre-race meal of thin crust Papa John’s pizza. We almost had a disaster on our hands when they delivered a regular crust pizza, but Eric came to the rescue and immediately called them back to point out their mistake and they quickly delivered my pizza as I had ordered and all was right with the world.
Who knows what would’ve happened had I eaten the regular crust pizza – I could’ve been one of those people on the side of the road! Never mess with a good thing.
I ended up getting to bed at about 9:15 p.m. knowing I had a wake up call coming at 3:30 a.m. I commented before going to sleep that in about 24 hours I would hopefully be crossing the finish line. It ended up being more like 26 hours, but who’s keeping track???
3:30 a.m. came very early, that’s for sure! We woke up and got ready and then headed over to the transition area so I could pump my tires up and check over my bike one last time. Transition area opened up a little before 5:00 a.m. and we had a bit of time to wait until they let us in.
I was ready to go!
Once they let us in I rushed in to work on my bike.
Look at those calves, man…I am ripped!
(lots of people in a mad rush to get to the swim start line)
Ironman Louisville is a unique Ironman because of the swim start. Most Ironmans have a mass swim start, meaning they send everyone off at the same time. This can be very crazy with lots of running in to those around you and potential kicks to the face and punches to the gut. Ironman Louisville does a time trial start, meaning they send people off a couple seconds between each other off of two docks. You have to line up in a line, first come first serve and wait until the start. Lots of people will get there super early because they are afraid of missing the swim cut-off time and they want as much time as possible (the swim cut off doesn’t start until the last person enters the water). I wasn’t so worried about missing the swim cut off as I was about finishing before midnight. So I wanted to get there decently early to give myself as much time as possible.
After rushing through getting my bike ready to go, we booked it over to the swim start (about a mile away) to hop in line. There were probably a good couple hundred people ahead of me (who knows what time they got there because we got there at 5:15 a.m.), but I felt confident with my place in line. Eric and I busted out the folding chairs we borrowed from my parents and hunkered down for a good 1.75 hour wait.
At one point a random lady and her husband came rushing down the line and stood in between myself and the person in front of me. I just thought they were taking a break because the husband sat down at a nearby picnic table. About 5 minutes later two guys walked up and started talking to the lady and asked her if this was their spot in line. She said, “yes”. WHAAAAT? The lady blatantly line-jumped. I should’ve said, “line jumping is not a sport at Ironman Louisville”, but frankly it was too early in the morning and I had too much on my mind to confront them. The lady who was truly in front of me said to the crazy lady, “are you waiting for someone” to which she responded “yes, why, am I in your way?” The woman in front of me said, “no, but I just wondered if you guys wanted to get in line”. Crazy lady offered no response but continued to stand there. At the point that the two guys walked up there were probably about a few hundred more people who had come to get in line.
I guess crazy lady was someone’s coach because eventually this other guy came walking up and started talking to her. He told her that he had a spot closer to the starting line, so she didn’t need to save him a spot. She ended up walking up to where he was standing to talk to him. At this point, the lady in front of me told one of the guys who line jumped that he had, in fact, line jumped and the crazy lady had just decided to find a random place in line. The guy apologized profusely, but I felt bad for him because at this point probably a thousand people had gotten in line behind me and he had been standing there (not knowing that he had line jumped) and didn’t know what to do. The crazy lady’s husband came up and apologized to me telling me his wife was a coach and she was very “high-strung”. I said I didn’t really care as long as they got in line behind me. They agreed to that and I thought it was settled.
Oh but no…crazy lady came back to the two guys that had walked up and unknowingly line jumped and told them to go with her towards the front of the line where the other guy had been standing. The guy that had apologized turned to me, gave me a sympathetic look, and then walked on with crazy lady. What a jerk. And what a super jerk that crazy lady was – she’s a coach and she thinks it’s ok to just jump in line wherever she feels like it? I don’t care how high-strung you are – that’s just plain RUDE! I got up at 3:30 a.m. to get that spot in line and she rolled in there at 5:30 or so and decided to take two participants with her in her cheating ways. I wish I would’ve given her a piece of my mind – but I wasn’t going to let it affect my race. No sense in getting all worked up at the time. I tried to put it behind me and tell myself that two line jumping competitors were not going to impact my ability to finish.
Ok, glad I got that out – anyways, after waiting in line for what seemed like forever, it was time to start moving. They made an announcement for all non-competitors to exit the starting line, which shrunk the line down considerably and caused a lot of line movement. The pro race started at 6:50 and when that gun went off I started to get very nervous – it was all finally becoming reality! After the pros took off a trumpeter played the Star Spangled Banner and My Old Kentucky Home and then they started the race. Because of the way the line was set up, we were able to see a lot of people enter the water. I was ready to go! Get me in that gross, Ohio River water and get this show on the road!
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